More Layoffs Strike Sony's Film Studio as Texas Office Closed

Sony is working with Bain & Co. to identify ways it can cut $100 million in costs.

In another round of layoffs, Sony Pictures Entertainment is closing its Texas distribution office, which coordinated a film's release with theaters in the middle of the country.

Employees in the Texas outpost, numbering roughly 15, have been told the office will be shuttered as of early June. Layoffs also are expected in the accounts receivable office in Los Angeles that takes in revenue from exhibitors.

Every other major studio besides Universal already had closed its Texas distribution office, instead dividing those duties between executives working in Los Angeles and New York.

Sony is working with Bain & Co. to identify ways it can cut $100 million in costs, an imperative that came on the heels of big-budget movie flops White House Down and After Earth, and in the midst of a public spat with Daniel Loeb. The activist shareholder argued Sony should spin off its entertainment assets and be more cautious about spending money.

The studio declined to comment on the layoffs hitting the distribution division.

Last week, Sony Pictures Interactive was shut down, a move that will likely result in 216 people being laid off, according to official data collected by state government officials. And roughly 50 people were let go in January when Sony Pictures Technologies was closed and jobs at VFX house Imageworks cut.